Hiroden Yokogawa Line

The line opened on 1 November 1917, in the early years of the company that would become Hiroden, running between Sakan-chō (today's Honkawa-chō) and Misasa (today's Yokogawa Station) by way of Tōkaichi-machi. It was built as a single track with four passing places. Around 1926 the Misasa terminus stop was renamed Yokogawa, fixing the name by which the line is known, and in 1938 the whole route was double-tracked.

The war years reshaped the line. The Yokogawa-ekimae stop was closed on 28 July 1941 and the Hirose-jinja stop in May 1942. Then, on 26 December 1944, the Sakan-chō–Tōkaichi-machi section was transferred into Hiroden's Main Line, so that the Yokogawa Line proper came to run only between Tōkaichi-machi and Yokogawa.

Less than a year later the line was caught in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, which halted services across the whole route. Recovery came in stages: the Bettsuin-ura–Tōkaichi section was restored on 26 December 1945, and the entire line was back in operation by 18 December 1948. In this the Yokogawa Line shared in the wider destruction and post-war rebuilding of Hiroshima's streetcar network.

In the decades that followed, the line settled into its role as a short connector feeding the city-centre network. On 6 May 1971 the old Route 7 that had served it was discontinued, and for the rest of the century the Yokogawa Line carried trams running through to and from the central routes rather than a service of its own.

A burst of modernisation came at the turn of the millennium, centred on the Yokogawa Station terminus. The terminal stop was renamed from Yokogawa to Yokogawa Station on 1 November 2001. After a trial special working on 10 August 2002, the terminus was rebuilt: on 27 March 2003 the Yokogawa Station stop was moved to run directly into the plaza in front of JR Yokogawa Station, and on 20 April 2003 a new Route 7 began operating over the line, giving it a regular branded service once again.

Ultra-low-floor trams arrived on 15 February 2013 with the introduction of the 1000 series, and in 2026 a trial to raise running speeds began on 4 March. Today the 1.4-kilometre Yokogawa Line runs from Tōkaichi-machi — where it meets the Main Line — out to Yokogawa Station, through the stops at Tera-machi, Bettsuin-mae and Yokogawa 1-chōme. It is used by Route 7 (Yokogawa Station to Hiroden-honsha-mae, and through to Hiroshima Port since the 2023 timetable revision) and Route 8 (Yokogawa Station to Eba), connecting the JR lines at Yokogawa Station with the heart of Hiroshima's tram system.

• 19171 November: the line opens between Sakan-chō (now Honkawa-chō) and Misasa (now Yokogawa Station) via Tōkaichi-machi, built as a single track with four passing places.
• 1926Around this year the Misasa terminus stop is renamed Yokogawa.
• 1938The whole line is double-tracked.
• 194128 July: the Yokogawa-ekimae stop is closed.
• 1942May: the Hirose-jinja stop is closed.
• 194426 December: the Sakan-chō–Tōkaichi-machi section is transferred into Hiroden's Main Line, leaving the Yokogawa Line to run only between Tōkaichi-machi and Yokogawa.
• 19456 August: all services are suspended by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; the Bettsuin-ura–Tōkaichi section is restored on 26 December.
• 194818 December: the entire line is restored to service.
• 19716 May: the old Route 7 that served the line is discontinued.
• 20011 November: the terminus stop is renamed from Yokogawa to Yokogawa Station.
• 200210 August: a trial special working is run on the line.
• 200327 March: the Yokogawa Station stop is relocated to run directly into the plaza in front of JR Yokogawa Station; 20 April: a new Route 7 begins operating over the line.
• 201315 February: the ultra-low-floor 1000 series enters service on the line.
• 20264 March: a trial to raise running speeds begins on the line.